Saturday, November 26, 2011

If this Black Friday was not a fine example of the orgy of enthusiasm with which we have embraced the decline of Western Civilization, then it is surely programming gone awry. If you were pepper-sprayed, in a crowd striving to take hold of an Xbox, I can say that I don't have much sympathy. I'm not ready to condemn her, the woman who did it. If rumor is true and she walked out unidentified, maybe even paying for the item, I almost feel like applauding her, insofar as she showed us the power of the school effect.

The easiest answer is, she's a sociopath. But if so, what are the people who were so oblivious in such number, that she got away with it? If the TV commercials are any indication, these Black Friday shoppers are supposed to be aggressive. They are more like feeder fish, in all the consciousness that behavior displays. It's sad, and appalling, that we have come to this place, choosing this path of continued abuse and destruction of the Earth, this absurd place we have come to, that we have to shop like mad to save the economy. As if that can save us from this out of control tilt toward apocalyptic devastation, wild-eyed in this strange faith in the prevailing paradigm. As if we hold on long enough some technological messianic something or other, is going to allow us to consume so obliviously, forever and always.

Sean Hannity interviewed Dick Cheney Saturday night. If there is a more smug Christian than Hannity, I am not aware of it. And Cheney? It is perfectly apropos that he is a man without a working heart. There is your cyborg, an aging imperialist on a book tour to tell us again that it was right and good that we started two wars while accepting tax cuts, our reward for ridding the world of terror, bankrupting the country. How have we rid the world? It remains a nationwide conspiracy, our collective unwillingness to accept responsibility. As if the two halves of ourselves are willing us toward oblivion. Better epic collapse, apparently, than a thoughtful readdressing of our place in the world, as a nation, as a people, as a species.

Ahriman and Lucifer. According to the mystic Rudolf Steiner, there is a twin-demonic energy loose in the world, which he called Lucifer and Ahriman, diametrically opposed to the archangel Michael. While I find this an imbalanced trinity, and I can't vouch for anything like an archangel, I can say I have sensed something like Ahriman and Lucifer. Ahriman representing a kind of material sacrifice of the spirit, Lucifer like a spiritual sacrifice of the material. Ahriman, as the idea that the world is only matter, raw material to exploit without concern for consequences except as they benefit me. Lucifer, as spiritual inflation, the idea that the existence of spirit, or any other plane or dimension, is the true reality, as if this reality has none, or none that is good. Both conspiring to separate us from the world we inhabit, leading us to our destruction.

It seems as apt a description of what is going on, as any. Doesn't this too, seem to speak of Capitalism and Socialism, twin social paradigms primary in this Age? Capitalists revere competition and the rule of law, esp. as it benefits Capitalists. Socialism, based in a fear of powerful men, seeks to restrain, but in the end only serving to elevate elites, at the expense of individual freedom, and often, sense. And let's not kid ourselves, all the Western nations and China are excellent examples of a blend of Capitalist and Socialist; in fact, the laissez-fair competition so dreamed of by Western Capitalists is more a reality in China than anywhere in the West, where also, in China, true socialism is most extreme. In China, you don't get to vote yourself benefits, or even communicate freely about them. America has been the Empire it is precisely because it has been such a balanced blend of Capitalist and Socialist tendencies.

If things go south economically speaking (speaking of financial markets, and the rise of China), and the European Union dissolves, life in Europe is likely to feel a bit more shadow socialistic. Here in America, any drift toward a more aggressive authoritarianism, is likely to have the flavor of the Right. Here's for a long, slow decline, so we can keep the house in balance. With all the bluster about Iran, and our disintegrating relationship with Pakistan, I'm not optimistic. I almost want the people of the world to ratchet up their consumption of fossil fuels, to drain the engine of that particular nightmare, sooner rather than later. Clearly, I don't have to worry much about that.

So where is this archangel Michael, in all of this? He certainly isn't behind Religion, which is as much influenced by Luciferic energy as anything. I'm pretty sure I saw something like Ahriman in a dream the other night. I would probably face down a glowing golden winged creature, as I did that thing with those nasty black horns and all that rage, if I were to see one. I am not in service to any tyrant. If he's there, he better have a miracle ready, if he hopes to dissuade Humanity from heading blindly into epic collapse. Perhaps he will assist us, if he is there, to help open our hearts? To crack open our heads, to let a little reality in, reminding us that the answer is in the body. Inside, where the workings of Ahriman and Lucifer are so evident, if we only care to look, to dispel them.

Me, I place my faith in the Goddess. Ahriman and Lucifer can blow, the freaks. Archangel Michael can earn some respect by showing us something. I'm not waiting. I'm looking to my core, to ground myself firmly in the Earth, to clear myself of all that prevents me from knowing what I am, why I am here, and what it is I am to do. I interpret signs, and take things thoughtfully, moderately, choosing my own path. Calling out my service to the Goddess daily, not with hope of any return, but to remind myself what it is I am doing, and why.

Those signs I spoke of are leading me to Dallas next week, as Creative Director of HD Masks, at the Professional Baseball Trade Show, at the Professional Baseball Winter Meetings. I played baseball a long time ago, but I quit following the professional game when my dreams of playing professionally ended. I can't name enough professional players to fill a team roster. I've been dreaming about bringing the green paint, animal pants and deer horns. I could wear the dragon mask, dancing down the isles between booths. We have a pirate costume and a mask. I think I'll bring the pine swords. I intend to sell a lot of masks, with the idea of the gift. If I sell an abundance of masks, I can take this house off the grid - actually walk my talk. Which is the point, if I intend on bringing healing to the Earth.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Meandering through HuffPost Tuesday, I came across a piece from Diane Francis, Editor-at-Large, The National Post: "Europe Boots Out It's Political Morons". For those who have not invested any attention in the travails of the EU, that well-meaning union of Nation-States is on the verge of collapse. Which would have grave ramifications for that union affectionately known (at least in some parts), as the United States of America.

She writes, of the appointment of Mario Monti as Italian Prime Minister, and the resignation of Silvio Berlusconi:

"The relatively seamless transition from elected to technocrats is a healthy and necessary way to circumvent short-term democracies which have failed to cope with this crisis. This is no different than a private sector "workout" where the CEO is removed from a failing corporation and is replaced by the bankers' representatives."

To which I replied in the comments:

"That, Ms Francis, is otherwise known as a coup. Which, here in America, is also called treason. I recommend resisting the urge toward ego inflation and the advocating of policies that are fundamenta­lly unconstitu­tional, lest you find yourself on the authoritar­ian side of history, part of that long list of usurpers and destroyers­. This is a country of people - one person, one vote - not a corporatio­n. Your words betray your comfort with that top-down, dictatoria­l hierarchy, and your lack of attention to the ideas out of which America was conceived - that there are urges toward power that must be checked, or freedom becomes what usurpers and dominators decide it will be."

It isn't surprising, this kind of thinking like Ms Francis', floating about the mainstream media. Millions of Americans are employed by some kind of corporation, and many more Americans will vote for none other, with their dollars. It should be remembered that there is nothing democratic about most corporate cultures; they are purely dictatorial. And very successful until recently, at providing for associates a certainty that there would always be a higher standard of living. If one lives in the kind of comfort provided by that employment, it shouldn't be surprising at all that one would become comfortable with authoritarianism. Many are finding now that that service isn't always so sweet, and no guarantee of anything. Notwithstanding, people do not forget what that comfort was like, and most want it back, at what currently seems to be any cost.

In the midst of crisis, Europe officially chose authoritarianism - an unelected autocracy of financial organizations, selecting technocrats to lead nations, free of any messy electoral process that surely would not lead to autocratic technocracy and steep cuts to social programs. Everybody is trying to keep their's, the billionaires and the pensioners, hardly a one willing to give. Still, it is nothing short of usurpation, the few who have the greatest financial stake claiming power extraordinarily, even risking a potential North/South conflict - if the bond vultures are allowed to dine, it's hard to imagine Italians, Spanish and Greeks living quietly in servitude to northern Banks, and bondholders from around the globe.

I heard the following quote, attributed to a famous bond trader (who I won't name because I can't confirm him having said it), referring to the Congressional Super Failure.

"If the cowardly lions can't find their courage, maybe it's time to let the wizards of Finance run things."

Very clever, and apt in half, but I really hope my fellow Americans think this is as ridiculous on the whole as I think it is. Never mind the wizard in that story was just a man pretending to be like a god. In some ways, it doesn't seem like it matters, because ideologues on the right and left seem to have accepted the necessity that financial wizards dictate the course of the country. Stealth usurpation. I don't even hear any Tea Party Congressperson who isn't talking about letting financial wizards define America's economic future; many seem their foremost advocates, as if the only freedom worth advocating is the self-interested accumulation of money.

It is probably time to point out, as if I were the first, that self-interest is driving humanity inexorably toward ecological oblivion. If we know anything about the human animal, it is that once he has something, he is going to do what he has to do to keep it. That goes as well for health care, homes and pensions, as it does for the rewards of hedge fund management. Capitalist economic doctrine is now the preferred economic model worldwide. It is wise to remember, an economic model does not a Nation make; and, that there is a vast gulf between the extreme binaries that are Capitalism and Socialism, those two economic models the ideologues of the world have forced upon us.

John Michael Greer wrote a prescient post in this regard, recently, leaning on the work of Aristotle, and the mystic Rudolf Steiner, to point out that the binary relationship is a false one, they being typically two sides of the bad, with the good, or the virtue, at the center between the two. That place between Capitalism and Socialism, in my conception, being the balance between self-interest and service to the whole, or something like the gift economy Charles Eisenstein elucidates in his Sacred Economics.

To be fair to Ms Francis, she has not advocated for the direct suspension of any Constitution, though she did write the piece before the Congressional Super Failure. I wonder what she will write next (she had some particularly authoritarian language for the opponents of the Keystone XL pipeline). And as far as I know, Monte will have to run for Italian Prime Minister, in the next election. Then again, I'm not sure the national sovereignty of Italians or Greek or Spaniards or even the French is as important to EU financial leadership, as the health of the current economic regime. It is equally clear to me that the government of America, from the Judiciary to the Congress to the Presidency, is more concerned about the Market than the Constitution or democracy. I am less clear about the people.

I'm not sure how invested we are in the freedom to do much of anything but make money and buy things. We have been able to buy so many things for so long, we have let this country tilt toward authoritarianism, and once unleashed, that is no easy thing to restrain. We are going to have less money to buy things with, in the future in America, it is looking like. Whether we will allow the continued creep of authoritarianism, in the false belief that it will lead us on another long, lucrative empirical run, I don't know. Suspending the Constitution in an effort to protect capital interests, seems entirely possible.

What we forget about the human animal (aka human being), is that having lived for so long in community, we are quite capable of giving. In fact, many human beings know it feels good, and it is exceedingly healthy, to give. We are going to have to remember how to give if we have any hope of passing through the transition that will be the end of fossil fuels, with the knowledge that will allow us to live happy lives, generation after generation.

John Michael Greer has recently written too, about the tendency to become like the thing we contemplate. With due respect, and he deserves much, I would suggest that we must contemplate the loss of our freedom, if we are to maintain hope of retaining it. If we are to contemplate it, it is imperative too, and I think he would agree, that we give thanks for the freedom we have, and our ability to contemplate it freely.

This Thanksgiving, I am thankful for the freedom to write publicly, without living in fear. I am thankful for the police, those who take seriously their creed to protect and to serve. I am thankful for social media, which has reminded them, and us, that authoritarian behavior is alive and well in America. I am thankful for the abundance in my life, my beautiful family, the beautiful families I know, for this house that remains my abode. I am thankful for a job, and those who have provided me with it. And I am thankful for my readers.

Sunday, November 20, 2011

I think I've been a bit preoccupied with violence, of late. Not wanting to call violence into my life, or into being, I thought I might shift the trajectory of my thought somewhat, and comment on a thing that perplexes me.

Some people firmly believe in the immanent presence of aliens. They believe in the presence, in the skies, of mechanical devices that contain beings who did not evolve on Earth. I know at least one man, who is otherwise a fairly grounded being, a good father and an artist, who believes he went through something like an abduction. It is estimated that just about as many Americans believe in aliens in our skies, as believe in God. Despite the fact that this does not square with physics as we currently understand it; no mechanical device is capable of traversing the distance between stars with habitable planets as we understand them, in the lifetime of any living thing with intelligence as we understand it. It is hard enough to fly to Mars, in the relatively cozy confines created by our Sun. If any human made it to Mars alive, and sane enough to pursue scientific objectives, after the six or so years the journey would take, he or she would have to be eminently samurai-like, or unconscious most of the way. Returning alive would be something like a miracle.

To put this in perspective, the star Gliese 581, one of the 100 closest stars to our Sun, only 20.5 light years away, is said to have a potentially habitable planet in orbit around it. The humans who made it there, traveling by conventional means, say about 40,000 mph through interstellar space, would get there in about 3 billion years, in about the same amount of time it has taken life to evolve on Earth. They would have to evolve into some kind of half-silicon, tiny gray egg-headed thing, to still exist by the time they reached that one planet that we thought might be habitable, esp. should it turn out to be more like Europa, or Mars, to endure the bitterness of it. Then again, Mars might actually seem like a kind of paradise, to any being that never knew any reality but the inside of a space ship. Of course too, that planet won't probably exist, 3 billion years from now.

There are Einstein-Rosen bridges, or worm holes - or the speculated such things, which cannot be confirmed for lack of evidence. Theoretical pathways through the fabric of space-time, that would allow mechanical vehicles to travel vast distances in a short period of time. Unless these bridges are fixed in space, and there are pathways within the near reaches of the solar system, or inside it, or it is possible to call them into existence, it is impossible to imagine accessing one. And where would you go, if you knew of one and you entered it? Wouldn't you be opening up the Earth to whatever might exist on the other side, whatever that might be? Would you survive, or would you be pulled apart particle by particle, as in a black hole? Whatever possibilities there might be, no such bridge is known to exist.

There is another idea, which I first encountered in Graham Hancock's Supernatural, that there are no such beings immanent, outside of the vast interior of our consciousness. There is no historical reference to little gray beings from space, prior to 1950's America, when tales of alien abduction began to emerge. The prevailing scientific notion is, alien abduction is hallucinatory, dream induced fantasy. Hancock does not condescend this way. Rather, he assumes that the little gray beings are like emanations of the unconscious, literal beings, appearing to us not as they are but as we are inclined to perceive them. He suggests these same beings appeared to our ancestors as half-men, half animals, or like gods, or like humans, contacting us through dream states, hallucination and trance. Today, we are conditioned to see little gray beings, half-alive, half-machine, by the industrial mechanical nature of the Age, the opening up of the physical universe in our consciousness, and our own modest space travel. And the reports of these aliens and abduction, and their sad semi-lifeless amorality, as the fear that we might become like them. He argued that aliens do not exist in the physical reality of our solar system, but they do exist, as beings in some other kind of dimension, or elsewhere in the universe, using consciousness as the vehicle.

I am inclined to think that life exists wherever conditions are appropriate for it, more a universal rule than the exception. If we continue to explore the solar system, I suspect we will find life in many places, however humble that existence, like the life we have found at the bottom of the sea, or flourishing in arctic waters, or in steaming, molten hydro-vents, where we did not believe life could exist. I'm inclined to think there is abundant life and probably intelligent beings in every galaxy, of which there are hundreds of billions. And if there is any kind of vehicle with which to traverse the universe, it is as likely as not, consciousness.

There are many who believe discloser is imminent. That is, the idea that world leaders have been aware of the terrestrial existence of aliens from other planets, and that there has been some kind of agreement between said leadership and these aliens, that the aliens not reveal themselves for a period of time, perhaps at such time as the world economy is bankrupted and the world is irredeemably polluted. At such time as we are deeply weakened, and can be taken over more easily. Various people are said to be aware of and hastening this end, through various machinations. I see no such awareness in anyone in leadership anywhere. I see only people who believe they are in control, who are mostly fooling themselves.

Mostly, I have convinced myself that there are no aliens in our skies, nor have there ever been, nor will there ever be. If there are such things as Einstein-Rosen bridges, the solar system is as likely to stumble into one, as we are ever to find one in our veritable back yard, that we can traverse at will. It is more likely that if they exist at all we will never really know it, anymore than we can conceive of say, quantum non-locality. In short, we are alone in our corner of the universe, on the only planet we will ever know. So we might as well get used to it, and start treating it like it matters. The whole idea of aliens in our skies, as nothing but an extension of our loneliness, and our desire for a messiah, someone or something to come save us from our predicament.

But just about the time I get smug about it, I think about crop circles. One doesn't have to spend more time looking at images of crop circles than it takes to finish a cup of coffee, to begin to question everything we think we know about anything. I know what people say about them, that they are created by people using wooden boards and rope, which sounds to me like an argument designed to protect one's shell from cracking and one's ego from spilling onto the computer. One discovers on the second cup of coffee, that no supposedly sober person will study crop circles, or even comment, without passing them off as irrelevant. Like hallucinogenic substances, they are off-limits, taboo. Not to be considered, because they cannot be explained rationally, with any understanding that doesn't defy the limits of existence as we know it.

Such is my perplexity made of. But if crop circles aren't created by aliens, then it's a process involving some grand duplicity by humans, who are generally too egotistical a creature not to take credit. Why will the artist not show his/her/itself, and how? It is very mysterious. (I have considered too the idea that the Earth itself is doing it. But that's an idea even more far-out than aliens, and I don't take it very seriously.)

I hear that in Glastonbury, England, where there seem to have been crop circles in abundance, they are expecting the return of Arthur. I want to go there, for the same reason I want to eat mushrooms. Because I am perplexed, and because I can't really know outside of my own experience.

And if there are aliens in the skies, and you are good, why the hell are you being so coy? What the hell is taking so long? What the F are you waiting for?

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Remember what I said about America not going insane, last week? Yeah, then that Penn State thing came out, and the board fired the great coach, like they needed to, but then they left the guy on staff who actually saw that sexual predator assault that boy, and didn't do a whit more than the coach, or anyone else who knew about it. Isn't that just about as clear a tale as there is, as to how a game of dominance and destruction has become like a religion to so many Americans, that even a known pedophile cannot be exposed, or even prevented, and he was maybe even allowed to prostitute boys to wealthy donors - ostensibly, to protect the program. And then that video, those policemen, in Berkeley of-all-places, pummeling those kids and teachers, pulling them around by their hair - a clear message to Americans, about what happens to those who question the prevailing paradigm. And John Corzine, Senator and Governor and potential heir to the Treasury-Office of the Secretary, former CEO of Goldman Sachs and all-around darling of the Wall Street set, walking away unscathed after $600,000,000 of investor funds, under his purview, go missing, as if it was just a bad bet? I'm not sure if it's a sign of our worship of the Market, or our faith in the Law, that either of these men, Corzine and Sandusky, are still alive. We are a society of laws, I keep hearing, but from my perspective, these laws seem tilted rather strikingly, pardon the pun, to keeping the majority in check, while letting a minority risk hundreds of millions of other people's dollars, and even rape children with impunity, from a pedestal.

And Ms Bachmann out there, talking about beating Sandusky to a pulp. This, from a woman who as President, would likely drop a nuclear bomb on Tehran. She doesn't look like she's going to have that opportunity, thank God. Which is curious, as God apparently told her to run. Isn't that funny, God sending such a message of consistent crazy talk. But then, there's Herman Cain, who God too convinced to run. I'm wondering why God wants such a cad to be president? I mean seriously, if public accusations of sexually inappropriate behavior are like what corporations used to think was the rule about written complaints (back when they still cared about customer service), then there are like 500 women this wannabe President humiliated sexually. If you consider too, going-public nationally is a bit more intense than writing a letter, the number is probably more like a thousand. That is some seriously ill mo-jo. But clearly, that kind is held in high esteem, in some circles. I'm starting to think God has a wicked sense of humor. I mean, really, who actually thinks pedaling some of the shittiest pizza in America is reason to be President?

Lest you forget, it would have been Obama who would have tapped Corzine for the Treasury post. I do have to say, though, his recent stall on the Keystone XL pipeline is the first major decision he has made as President that I agree with. Not that the Canadians are any less likely to find a way to continue to open up a wound in the North American continent here-to-fore unknown anywhere on Earth. Now that they can't just send a pipeline through the heartland, they are prevented by a mountain range in the West and ice in the North, and it's a damn long way from Alberta to Nova Scotia. But that route is over granite bedrock, which is a lot more stable than permafrost. How much do you think is at stake, in this next election? Just as The Congress is set to eviscerate the economy with a $1.5 trillion cut in spending. That pipeline would be a G-O-GO on about day 101, of any Presidency of any of the candidates running among the GOP. Then again, I'm not sure existing oil supplies, or the continued solvency of the EU, or the international bond market, will see that pipeline to completion, whoever is elected. Whatever the case, it cannot ever be built, to lead anywhere off the continent.

A guy showed up at the store, the morning after I wrote the last post. In a conversation about art with one of my staff, he let out that he had consumed seven grams of shrooms the night before. Good god, I said, Terence Mckenna met with the mushroom man on five grams! I took his presence as a sign, even if he looked sleepy, and a little skittish. He said he would find some for me, and I heard from him once, but he hasn't shown up since. Too bad.

All week, something I said in the last post has been sticking with me. What exactly am I advocating? Well, here's something. I've said it before. Dismantle every third house in some neighborhoods of Minneapolis, and use them to rebuild the others, to take advantage of solar heat. We might start with every house owned solely by any bank that is heavily leveraged in International markets. Start a trend. If our elected officials insist on acting like bank and Wall Street bitches, then I say, take the big banks down. While we're at it, start a new local gift-based currency. Appropriate as much land as possible to gardens. It's all going to happen sooner or latter, anyway. Might as well be intentional about it.

I had a premonition riding my bike to work this morning, after spending the evening with a woman, that all that has passed in this last 6,500 year cycle, all of the ever increasing suffering of the teeming masses, of biological systems everywhere, of the whole system of the Earth, is spiraling to some energetic point; out of which we will continue, spiraling energetically outward, hopefully in a more all-encompassing way. Every one of us has the opportunity in any moment to make any choice, that can set us entirely on a new trajectory. Here's hoping humanity makes a choice that will right itself with the Earth.

Friday, November 4, 2011

In a previous post, I wrote about the Christian propensity past for torturing and burning women. I suggested that such a thing - as we seem more interested in the happenings of Kim Kardashian than we are in anything that has ever happened - could happen again. I am sensitive to the charge that calling it out calls it into being. I am also aware that I am living in a culture that is not anywhere near so enlightened as it believes itself to be. In fact, it appears to me profoundly delusional, hardly more aware for all our privilege and available information and our sense of entitlement, than we were in the Middle Ages. It is more likely, actually, that we could revert back into officially sanctioned barbarity, than we are on the verge of the great awakening that I am advocating for. But then, I'm home alone on a Friday night drinking homemade wine and smoking pot, because saying so does not exactly make me a pariah...

I'm quite confident, actually, that my fellow Americans are not going to go completely insane. I don't think, but then, the same thing that was reason for you to be tortured and killed in the Middle Ages, a propensity for looking to plants for your salvation rather than men, is reason enough for the Government today to put you in a cage, and take everything you own but your life. And really, if you are in a cage, or on probation, or you are coming out of "school" with a hundred thousand dollars of debt, the government might as well own your life. And the vast majority of Americans, at least until very recently, have thought nothing about this arrangement. We have tacitly supported it, sometimes vociferously. Hell, even now, when at least half the population supports marijuana for at least medical purposes, the government of that great black hope* is raiding dispensaries. And if you are afraid reading this, is it because I have suggested there is salvation to be found in plants; or are you worried that a government agency might be eavesdropping, and you have been heretofore living unbeknown, in the midst of tyranny? Don't act too surprised. There is hardly a human alive who would not devastate the biosphere to improve his or her standard of living - which is also like saying there is hardly a human alive who will not accept any government that allows them to pursue an ever more expensive standard of living, no matter the consequences.

All I really want to do when I'm done inventorying (it is as tiresome a word to say as it is to do) the vast array of Monster Halloween merchandise the Twin Cities did not purchase, is consume about five grams of Strophoria cubensis. Unfortunately, I don't know anyone who grows them, I don't know where to look, and I don't know that I can afford five grams. I do have syringes full of spore in my refrigerator, but they're not illegal as long as they remain spore, and there are no shortage of competing spore in this house. Mushrooms are not technically a plant, but their own kingdom entirely: Fungi. Or queendom, depending on the people who have held them in high regard. I am not averse to finding my salvation from any kingdom or queendom, including that of men and women, but I hold to the advice of the Oracle at Delphi, all things in moderation.

A reader left a bag full of vegetables, for me, at the store recently. I wouldn't be averse at all to a reader dropping by with five grams of shrooms. I have abundant skills, I was a general contractor, I'm open to trade for labor and intelligence and maybe conversation and friendship too, though I will pay if I can afford it. I'm open to it, but I'm not very optimistic, as I have about as many readers locally as I do on both coasts, and the dangers are very real - though law enforcement around here in my experience is more bite than bark and not very full of either.

That, or maybe twenty fresh leaves of the plant Ojos de la Pastora, or a hefty brew of the ayahuasca. I can do without the datura. I will gladly puff the DMT. Or even, 250 fresh home-grown seeds of the Heavenly Blue Morning Glory, as my harvest this year was as weak as the nightshades tomato and potato (though that very tricky cousin of theirs seemed to do just fine.) The Heavenly Blue are even legal, perfectly mundane; and sublime.

My garden harvest this year was even more weak than the profit at Monster Halloween, insofar as I failed to gather most of it, either the ripe watermelon or grapes or tomatoes or peppers or eggplant, in anything close to their entirety. Which part seemed to me a reason for the dis-favor I seemed to have found myself in, with the Goddess, which lately seemed to have changed but which now seems more like a tease. Which is fine. I'm not interested in pursuing any woman who's not into me. And there seems another book and maybe two and at least a story growing in my consciousness, I'll be looking at that second book and maybe releasing both, as a free download. Meanwhile doing everything I can to turn HD Masks into a hundred million dollar business. All, assuming everything doesn't go to hell right quick, like I half expect it to. And I don't drink and puff myself into oblivion.

Oh yeah, and the dance. And I haven't been singing. Oh yeah. (Insert laughter.)

*If Barack Obama has any hope of earning a second term, it's that there is no one sane who would want the job, or even a legitimate competitor. If he wasn't meant to be there, he wouldn't have that name.